Broken, Shattered, Fallen
by BA17
Summary: She had made herself walk out the door and not look back. So why couldn't she make herself forget? Why couldn't she make herself go on without feeling the guilt of just turning her best friend's help away?
1. Broken

**DISCLAIMER:** Don't own Heroes. Own Jasmine Reider and a few other characters mentioned. Don't own Twila Parker. Twila belongs to Don't Diss The Sonic (I'm still laughing, sorry… XD). Don't own Matthew O'Loughlin & Jeremy Cambridge; Matthew and Jeremy belong to DreamerBoy from 9thWonders.

**Basic info needed to understand this fic:***

**Jasmine Reider** is 26 years old and a special with the ability of Empathy. She has been diagnosed with clinical depression earlier in her life, somewhere during high school.

**Twila Parker** is also 26 years old and a special with the power of Hydrosynthesis. She was Jasmine's college roommate and is like an older sister to Jasmine.

**Alexander McCollet** is 26 years old (... repetitive ages, much...?); power of Pyrokinesis. Jasmine's high school ex-boyfriend, currently Twila's husband (like that'll ever change).

**Matthew O'Loughlin** is 27 years old**; power of Mental Manipulation. Jasmine's college boyfriend and now about 1 1/2 year husband.

**Jeremy Cambridge** is 16 years old; power of Precognitive Empathy. Street kid; not exactly homeless but strays from his home and arguing parents.

Any other characters mentioned will probably be explained later.

*These are just character info. If I explained the plot, it'd take forever to sum up.

**Ye gosh, I don't have variety in ages, do I? /sarcasm

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**_"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down." - Unknown_**

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Jasmine was angry.

She was beyond angry. She was furious. Mad. Any other synonym of angry that existed, it was all packed into Jasmine.

And she couldn't even remember why she was mad.

She only remembered who she was furious at. The rest was blurred by her rage. Her voice deadly quiet, she spoke, glaring at the redhead who sat across from her, "Go crawl into a ditch, Twila." It was college that taught Jasmine to use Twila's first name to get her pissed off. The girl preferred Parker as her addressed name and usually ignored somebody if they called her by her given name. The reaction wasn't any different than the result Jasmine had gotten 8 years ago while trying to provoke her then friend.

The redhead simply ignored Jasmine's angered words and spoke in that ever so calm tone of hers. "Calm down, Jasmine." It was frustrating. How could this girl be so fucking calm when she was sitting straight across from Jasmine who had her fists clenched so hard that the knuckles were white?

"What if I don't want to calm down? What if I decide I'd rather bash your face in?"

Violence was never the answer.. most of the time. Jasmine never got violent toward Twila. The redhead was like an older sister to Jasmine. She would never hurt Twila. That was before Twila provoked her. Now, all Jasmine wanted to do was slam the redhead against the wall, take out all her anger on Twila, then throw her out of the house. One tiny problem, though. Jasmine was in Twila's house, sitting on Twila's couch. Or rather, Twila and Alex's house and Twila and Alex's house.

That was it.

Now she remembered why she was so mad at Twila. The redhead had talked Jasmine into having talk with her. For old times' sake. Just some catching up. And suddenly, in the middle of the conversation, Twila had brought up the question of "Do you still love Alex".

Jasmine had been so caught off-guard that she stuttered incoherent mumbles before shutting herself up. Then, murmuring a quiet "no", she had kept silent for the next few minutes. But Twila had pressed on. She claimed that she could understand if Jasmine was just a bit jealous. After all, jealousy was a human emotion. And after all, Alex had broken Jasmine's heart and had broken it again when she tried to rekindle their relationship. Then Jasmine had gone off and did the stupidest thing she had ever done, playing matchmaker with Alex and Twila after college. That was when the jealousy started. And it hadn't ended. Twila obviously knew that even though Jasmine had never revealed this piece of information to anyone besides herself. After being mentally reminded that she was - in fact - jealous of Twila and Alex's relationship, she had snapped at Twila.

And the redhead was still unfazed. What did it freaking take to make this girl flinch? Maybe Jasmine would snap again in her anger at Twila. Or maybe she would snap from her frustration at Twila's calmness.

Twila broke Jasmine's train of thoughts - which were only taking up mere minutes as opposed to the hours it seemed - and responded to Jasmine's earlier comment of bashing her face in. "You would never hurt me." The statement was a fact. A fact that Jasmine would have proven right back in college. But right now, she was absolutely sure that she would break that fact.

"Are you so _sure_ of that?"

Twila only nodded, further propelling Jasmine's anger. The brunette quickly stood up, glowering. But instead of slamming her friend into the wall and beating the crap out of her like she wanted to, Jasmine trudged over to the door. Letting her hand linger over the doorknob, Jasmine murmured over her shoulder, "Goodbye, Twila." It wasn't a simple "goodbye, see you next time". When Jasmine said goodbye, the both of them knew it meant forever. It also carried a more hidden meaning, one that made Jasmine struggle to not turn around , break down into tears, and say sorry.

(I'll miss you, Twila.)

With that last goodbye – and no response -, Jasmine opened the door and walked out, slamming the door behind her. She slowly pulled her hood over her head and tried to walk away and shrug the past hour off as a dream. But it wasn't a dream and she couldn't walk away so easily. Guilt overcoming her, she slumped down on the stairs leading to the house she had just left. Why couldn't she make herself cut the bond? She had made herself get angry at Twila. She had made herself walk out the door and not look back. So why couldn't she make herself forget? Why couldn't she make herself go on without feeling the guilt of just turning her best friend's help away? Jasmine pretended she didn't know the answer as she slowly stood up and headed away from the house. But the lone thought, the lone answer to her questions, echoed in her mind, clear as the blue sky.

She was broken and only Twila could pick up her pieces.

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"_And I've lost who I am  
And I can't understand  
Why my heart is so broken  
Rejecting your love  
Without love gone wrong  
Lifeless words  
Carry on"_

_**- Shattered by Trading Yesterday**_


	2. Only Partially Healed

**Already put the disclaimer in the first chapter.  
**

**Don't Diss The Sonic – Oops. My bad. My eyes have been off whack lately. XD Anywho, second chapter now. Let's hope you can cry now. …Wait, that's not a good thing to say. D:**

**Also, for all readers, I didn't exactly know a song that fit for this chapter so… I just put three quotes at the bottom. XD Also because I really wanted to use those quotes. :3  
**

**Yes, this is a long-ish chapter (to me) but my writing muse sucks right now so….. the sentence structures will absolutely suck.**

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**"_**Friendship is like a glass ornament; once it is broken it can rarely be put back together exactly the same way." - Unknown

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**_

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

Jasmine wasn't supposed to storm out like that. And Twila wasn't supposed to be sitting in the same spot she had been an hour ago, feeling this big void open up inside of her. Even her husband couldn't seal up that void as he sat down on the couch beside her, wrapping her up with a hug.

"Is everything alright?"

When Twila gave no response and just stared at him, he got the message. Nothing was alright. Twila sighed after a few moments of silence, "Well, not _everything_ is alright. It's just that Jasmine….." She trailed off and bit her lip, not wanting to say more.

"It's Jasmine, dear. Give her time."

Twila nodded, letting herself take comfort in Alex's embrace.

* * *

Jasmine grumbled to herself as she strode into her house, taking care to slam the door loudly and jolt Matthew from his afternoon nap on the couch. "Somebody's angry…." He commented, waiting for Jasmine to explain. "It's nothing, Matthew." He grabbed her wrist as she passed by, "You slammed the door. That means you're angry. _Why_ are you angry?" She glared at him, "Things didn't go well at Twila's house." "Care to explain?" She yanked her wrist out of his grip and trudged off to the master bedroom, shouting over her shoulder, "_No_, Matthew. I would not care to explain." Matthew sighed and leaned back onto the couch. What had happened at Twila's house to make Jasmine like this?

* * *

Twila had left her house over an hour ago, instantly driving to the nearest bar she knew. It was a slightly unusual action for Twila Parker to do, mostly because she occasionally got drunk. But today, Twila wasn't going to the bar for herself. She was there because she knew it was the one place she would find her best friend. And as always, she was 100% accurate. The brunette had her back facing Twila, deep in conversation with the bartender. Twila hesitated for a moment, waiting until the bartender had left to serve somebody else to approach the other girl.

"I thought I told you goodbye forever." The girl said out of the blue, throwing Twila off guard. Why did she _always_ have to be so damn stubborn?

"You didn't exactly say 'forever', Jasmine." The redhead replied, forming air quotes around "forever".

"I don't see how that matters. I meant it anyway." Jasmine shot back, her tone making the sentence seem like it belonged in a everyday conversation.

Twila was left silent, staring in awe at her friend – whether or not Jasmine still considered Twila to be her friend was to be found out. She finally got her voice back and murmured so only Jasmine could hear. "You don't mean that, Jasmine." She gently put her hand on the brunette's shoulder only to be roughly shaken off.

"Don't. Touch. Me." Jasmine hissed, glaring daggers.

A commotion was starting to brew between the two girls and to be honest; the bartender didn't bother to break up the girls because he was just too lazy – and because female bar fights were more entertaining half of the time.

Twila gave a short laugh and proceeded to taunt Jasmine. After all, it was the first step to get her to calm down in a short four-step plan. "What, I can't touch you?" She faked a smile and gave a little push to Jasmine's shoulder.

What Twila got in response was already expected; it hurt nevertheless. Jasmine's right hook caught the other girl square in the jaw, sending her stumbling to the ground. The whole bar fell silent and stared, all eyes on the girls who were now the center of attention.

Twila rubbed her jaw, "That hurt." Jasmine silently glared back as Twila stood back up. "Aw, come on, Jasmine. You _can_ do better than that, right?" The redhead smirked as Jasmine fell for her taunt and aimed for Twila's jaw again – but she was prepared this time. Side-stepping, Twila grabbed both of Jasmine's wrists and held them still. The brunette struggled, hissing, "Let go of me!" Jasmine's obvious refusal to cooperate caused Twila to just grip her friend's wrists tighter.

The redhead leaned in and whispered into Jasmine's ear, "You are going to calm down _now_. Then, you are going to come with me and we are going to have a talk." Her tone was so gentle that it calmed the brunette immediately. Jasmine heavily sighed as Twila let go of her wrists, "Fine."

As the two girls started heading for the exit, Twila stopped and gave the bartender a look of disappointment, "You're one lousy bartender." The bartender said nothing but put up an obscene finger in Twila's direction. She shrugged it off and continued walking toward the exit with Jasmine trailing behind.

As they got to Twila's car, Jasmine sighed again, climbing into the passenger seat. "Thank you, Twila." She kept the sentence vague, not giving a hint to what she had thanked Twila for. There was no response from the redhead until after she had started the car and had driven away from the bar.

"Thanks for what?" Twila asked, breaking the silence. Her hands rested on the steering wheel, calm as always. Whereas if Jasmine had been driving, her hands would have been clenched so hard, the knuckles white.

"I don't know… Everything, I guess?" Jasmine shrugged, furrowing her brow in confusion at her inability to explain.

"You can't explain how much you'd like to thank me right now." Twila simply stated, an amused smile touching her face.

Jasmine paused, her mouth opening and closing as she pondered the statement, "Well… Yes, sort of. I guess…." She smiled and laughed after a moment, "You always could read me like a book, Twila."

The car fell silent except for the whirring of the engine and Twila and Jasmine's steady breathing. A few minutes later, Twila put the car into park and scrambled out of the driver's side, fiddling with her keys. Jasmine followed suit, took one look at where they were, and stared at the redhead, "You said we were going to talk."

Twila nodded, "We are." She walked up the steps to the McCollet-Parker house, unlocking the door.

Jasmine stayed beside the car, "Wait, but what about Alex?"

"It's Friday, Jasmine. I can just, I don't know, tell him to go spend the night at somebody else's house." She shrugged, chuckling at Jasmine's look of disbelief.

"That sounds kind of harsh, don't you think?"

"Well, he'll probably deal with worse, being married to me and all."

Jasmine blinked and followed Twila into the house, muttering, "Sometimes I don't understand you, Twila."

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"_**It takes years to build up a friendship but only one day to break it…." – Jasmine Reider**_

"_**If you're alone, I'll be your shadow. If you want to cry, I'll be your shoulder. If you want a hug, I'll be your pillow. If you need to be happy, I'll be your smile... But anytime you need a friend, I'll just be me." – Unknown**_

"_**A simple friend thinks the friendship over when you have an argument. A real friend knows that it's not a friendship until after you've had a fight." - Unknown**_


End file.
